Welding apparatus



0a. 28, 1941. R, E POWELL 2,260,866

WELDING APPARATUS Filed May 10, 1940 INVENTOR R. E. POWELL 6R mm A TTORNE) Patented Oct. 28, 1941 WELDING APPARATUS Raymond E. Powell, Westfield, N. Jqassignor to Western Electric Company, Incorporated, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application May 10, 1940, Serial No. 334,323

4 Claims.

This invention relates to welding apparatus, and more particularly to apparatus for electrical resistance welding adapted to make contact with the work simultaneously at several points.

Where two or more metal parts are to be welded together at several points simultaneously, there arises a problem of obtaining both equal mechanical pressures at the several points where welding is to occur and of supplying current satisfactorily and evenly to the same points. In resistance welding generally, there are provided two laws or analogous members, usually of highly conductive metal such as copper or one of its suitable alloys, which are adapted to apply pressure to metal parts placed between them to be welded. Means are provided to exert the necessary pressure through the Jaws, and means are provided to supply welding current, ordinarily of large amperag and low voltage to the jaws, to pass between the jaws through the parts to be welded and to heat the latter at their points or 1 areas of mutual contact to welding temperature.-

' among the several welding points of each set of parts to be welded will vary, with consequent excessive heating at some welding points and Other objects and features of the invention will appear from the following detailed description of one embodiment thereof taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which the same reference numerals are applied to identical parts in the several figures, and in which Fig. 1 is a partly diagrammatic view of the jaw portion of a resistance welding apparatus constructed in'accordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged detached view in perspective of the upper electrode; and

Fig. 3 is a broken similar view'of the lower electrode.

As therein illustratively described, the invention is applied in an apparatus for' resistance welding together three metallic units of a magnetic device which includes two identically similar generally horseshoe-shaped magnets Hand welds to be made simultaneously wherethe douinsufilcient heating at others Hence there arises the problem of providing means to transmit both mechanical welding pressure and electrical welding current simultaneously to a plurality of points on the work while providing'forboth compressional rigidity and a certain degree of angular fieiribility at the work plane while avoiding the clumsiness and complexity entailed by members to form separate paths for the mechanical forces and for the electrical power required for the welding operations.

An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus of the generalclass described in which the same flexible chain of elements is used to transmit both the mechanical pressure and the electrical power required for welding.

With the above and other objects in view, the invention may be embodied in a resistance welding machine in which one of the electrodes comprises two outer members each linked to one intermediate member by a pivot, the two pivots being at right angles to each other, and the three members being mutually formed and proportioned to simultaneously transmit both mechanical pressure and electrical current for welding.

ble pole piece l6, l1 rests on the upturned ends of the two horseshoe magnets l4 and IS.

A press is provided of any suitable construction, of which only so much is disclosed as is required for an understanding of the invention, the structure and mode of operation of the press being no part of the present invention. For present purposes it is only necessary to note that the press is provided'with a stationary bed member 20 and a ram 2| reciprocable at will toward and from the bed member. An electrode support 22 is mounted in.the bed 20 and is adapted to removably receive and grip the downwardly extending integral stem 23 of a block like lower electrode 24.

The body of the electrode is formed in its upper sid with two parallel vertical slots 25 and 26 to receive and support the magnets H and I5, which are further positioned therein by cross pins 21 and 28 and by jam screws 29 mounted in the outer walls of the slots. The magnets may, if necessary or advisable, be formed with flat surfaces at the several contacts which each has with the floor and inner side .of the slot in which it stands, so that the total area of contact of each magnet with the body of the elec- 2- trode may be greater than the area at the welding 'contacts withthe pole piece.

The pole piece is laid inposition as shown with or without a small pellet, disk or other body of auxiliary welding material, e. g. nickel, interposed at each of the four welding points.

The lower end .of the ram II is provided with means to grip a stem ll extending upwardly from a compound upper electrode body comprising four interlinked members ll, 32, 88 and 34, all prefstem 30, and is bifurcated as at II and it at the bottom to receive a corresponding tonguefl projecting up from the member 32. The members Si and I! are pivotably secured together by a pin 38 through-the forks II and 30 and the tongue 31. Thepinllmaybeofsteelorofthesame alloy as the members II and 3 2. The member 82 is also bifurcated at its lower face with forks It and 4| to receive matched tongues 4| and 42 extending up from the matched members It and 34. The plane of the bifurcation of member I! is at right angles to that of the bifutcation of member u. The members a and are linked to the member]! by a pin" similar to the pin as but at right angles thereto.

Each of the-forks ti and It terminates in a 'divide between these two paths. In any s,sco,ssa I rent will pass freely ings of the ends of the orks corresponding shoulders of the through the ends of the forks the corresponding shoulders of the members and 34; It may also be that the current it is'found that both mechanical welding pressure exerted by the ram 2! and weldingcurrent fed to the stem 34 can be transmitted together and simultaneously down through the compound universally Jointed electrodes Ii 82, 38,14 to the welding contacts 44 in an entirely satisfactory manner, without any necessity for a separate electrical path, as, for example, a flexible cable,

' or a plurality of such connected from the member 3| to the members "and 34.

The apparatus disclosed and described herein is illustrative and may be variously modified and departed from without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as pointed out in and limited only by the appended claims.

What is claimedis:

-l. An electrode for a resistance welding apparatus and adapted to simultaneously transmit I Jmechanical welding pressure and electrical weld convex arc concentric with the axis of the pin 8| 4 and mated with a corresponding arcuate shouldeer on the member 32. There is a small clearfree to pivot a little with respect to the member 3|. When the member 3| presses down on the member 32, the pressure may be transmitted through'the pin It or through the curved ended forks It and it. In the first case there may be a slight clearance between the forks and their corresponding shoulders; in the second case there may be a triflng looseness of the pin as either in the forks II and II or in the tongue I! or both.

The two members It and 34 are similarly pivotable, independently of each other, on the member 32. They are also formed on their under face with four contact lugs 44 to rest on the pole pieces l4 and I1 directly over the respective four welding points.

A suitable source of electric welding current,

not shown, is connected to supply current to thestems flandllandthustothe electrode members 24 and II.

In applying the present invention, it is found that, if the pins-II and 48 are themselves sumciently large and have sufiiciently large hearings in the members which they link together, welding current can be transmitted from the stem 34 to the contact lugs 44 in an entirely satisfactory manner, without overheating or harmful arcing or sparking, the current passing from the body of the member ll through'ths. pin 38 into the tongue I1, and from the body of the member 32 through-the pin 43 into the tongues 4| and 42. Or, as suggested above, if the pins It and 43 be relatively loose in their bearings the ournamed plane only.

in current and which comprises three metallic members in sequence, and means to link each member to the next to have pivotable freedom of motion with respect thereto, each linkage means serving to simultaneously transmit welding pressure and electrical welding current between the members linked thereby.-

2. An electrode for a resistance welding apparatus and adapted to simultaneously transmit mechanical welding pressure and electrical welding current and which comprises a plurality of metallic members in sequence, and means to link each member to the next to have pivotable freedom of motion in one plane only with respect thereto, the plane of motion at one linkage being at right angles to the plane of motion at another linkage, andeachlinkagemeansservingtosimultaneously transmit mechanical welding pressure and electrical welding current between the members linked thereby.

3. An electrode for a remstance welding apparatus and adapted to simultaneously transmit mechanical welding pressure and electrical welding current and which comprises two metallic members linked together by a pivot pin to have pivotable freedom of motion with respect to each other in one plane only, and a third metallic member similarly linked to one of the first named members with. freedom of motion in a plane at right angles tothe first namedpiane only.

4. An electrode for a-resistance welding apparatus and adapted to simultaneously transmit mechanical welding pressure and electrical weldingcurrentandwhichcomprisestwomet'aliic members linked together by a pivot pin to have pivotable freedom of motion with re pec to each other in one plane only, and a pair of metallic members similarly linked side by side to one of the first named members with individual freedom of motion in a plane at right angles to the first RAYMOND E, POWELL. 

